Vaux.—On the Probable Origin of the Maori Races. 29 
Fakaafo ; fas w or h in Maori, and h in Hawaian ; that the v of the others, 
is generally w, in Maori, Hawaian, and Saumatoan, and that the Maorir, is 
replaced by /, in the Fakaafo, Samoan, and Hawaian. 
Other changes I have noticed (and I doubt not more are to be found by 
learned scholars in the islands themselves), such as the double one, in the 
case of the Maori wahine (woman) as compared with the Tongan (fajine) ; 
the absence in Tahitian of the Maori ng ;* and, further, the change of the 
ng into n in Hawaian, and into k in Nukuhivan. The general inference to 
be drawn from these modifications would seem to be, that the Polynesian 
dialects (at least so far as we can judge of them from their present forms) 
do not sharply distinguish between v and w, d and ¢, / and r, d and r,b and 
p,g and k; that ¢ and k are sometimes confounded ; and, that one island 
has an affection for one set of sounds, another for another. In these 
changes and modifications of sound, the classical scholar is reminded, at 
every step, of the dialectical changes of ancient Greek, dependent as both 
the Classical and Oceanic dialects alike have been on the greater or the less 
education of the ear in different localities. I should add that Mr. Thom- 
son gives the following proportion of the number of consonants in different 
dialects to which he has called attention ; and this list is certainly curious, 
as shewing an apparent diminution in the powers of vocal expression, as 
you proceed from West to Hast. Thus he states that, while Malay has 18 
consonants, Mindanao has 16 ; Wagi of Celebes, 15; Tanna, 13; Malagasi, 
12; Mallicolo, 12; Awaiya of Ceram, 10; Tahiti, 9; Maori, 8; Marquesas, 
7; Sandwich, 6: but it should be remembered, that some of these, as Min- 
danao, Mallicolo, and Ceram, do not fall within what is usually termed 
Polynesia ; moreover, I am not satisfied (not that I doubt that Mr. Thom- 
son has taken his lists from books correctly), that the numbers given above 
do really represent all the consonantal sounds—which accurate ears, com- 
bined with sound philological knowledge, would detect in even the existing 
-languages. Mr. J. E. Alexander, who has written an excellent preface to 
Mr. Lorrin Andrews’ valuable Dictionary of the Hawaian language, remarks 
* Two-thirds of the Maoris use k for ng.—J. H. 
+ It is not easy to find words sufficiently distinct to avoid tedious repetition, or the 
ever-recurring tendency to fancy similar words in one dialect are derived, the one from 
the other. It would be tedious to say invariably “ found in” or “ occur in,” instead of 
calling what we observe simply a change. According to my view, it would be more 
accurate to say (for instance) that the Maori word wahine takes the form in Tongan of 
Jayine ; rather than to say that w and h respectively are changed into f; all, however, I 
mean to urge is, that if, for argument’s sake, a single original Polynesian language be 
imagined, then, Maori, as a rule adopts one set of consonants, Hawaian or Tahitian 
another, 
